


A fight he could not afford to lose

by drelfina



Series: A Very Chinese ABO [3]
Category: Joy of Life (TV), 庆余年 | Joy of Life (TV), 庆余年 | Qing Yu Nian (TV)
Genre: ABO trash party, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Drug-Induced Sex, Forced Pregnancy, Half-Sibling Incest, Implied Kidnapping, Implied Murder, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Miscarriage, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other, Please read with caution, a trash party of one, a very chinese ABO, all terrible, beta Li Chengqian, chinese trope of stress induced miscarriage, drug-induced heats, i am trash party, implied attempt to non-consensually induce abortion, no good ending, no humour at all, omega Li Chengze, so many goddamn trigger warnings, stress-induced miscarriage, this is very terrible, to be fair this is all very typical stuff of a Chinese Imperial succession war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24384220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina
Summary: The work of an Emperor never ceased, despite the many helpful underlings he had. Perhaps it was because there were so many; thousands of reports came into the palace every day, and even with work delegated to trusted officials, it was not easy to comb through even the summaries.The previous emperor, his father, had had a mind like a steel trap, constantly testing his sons, so often that even if he was nothing as clever as his Aunt, at least he had picked up something.He'd won, in the end.And in winning, well, he could take a break.The new Emperor of Qing, Li Chengqian, takes a break from the tedium of running an Empire.Even Emperors need a break now and then.AU of this ABO AU - will not be considered in the main timeline  of fics.pleaseread trigger warnings.
Relationships: Li Chengqian/Li Chengze, Li Chengze/Xie Bi'an
Series: A Very Chinese ABO [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761676
Comments: 14
Kudos: 14





	A fight he could not afford to lose

**Author's Note:**

> Read the tags. this is a terrible, horrible, completely bad-ending terribad no-good fic. 
> 
> All the terrible things are implied but they _happened_ and there will be no good ending. 
> 
> This is an AU of the ABO AU that I have posted so recently, because it will never happen in the actual ABO AU. 
> 
> Read with caution. Read with a _a lot_ of caution.

Li Chengqian, Emperor of Great Southern Qing, stretched out his shoulders as he stood up. 

The work of an Emperor never ceased, despite the many helpful underlings he had. Perhaps it was because there were so many; thousands of reports came into the palace every day, and even with work delegated to trusted officials, it was not easy to comb through even the summaries. 

The previous emperor, his father, had had a mind like a steel trap, constantly testing his sons, so often that even if he was nothing as clever as his Aunt, at least he had picked up something. 

He'd won, in the end. 

And in winning, well, he could take a break.

* * *

The room was thick with the scent of magnolias - even though he was no alpha, it would take someone completely scent-blind to not notice the sweet cloying scent. But because he was not an alpha he still stood for a moment to try and identify what he thought was a little different from -- 

Ah.

The bitter-salt underneath it. 

It'd worn off then. 

He shut the door behind him, crossing the length of the room to the bed, and sat down on the very edge, before reaching out to touch the long, delicate silver links. 

In the beginning, the chains had been steel throughout. It had taken months before he could finally use the weaker, but more beautiful silver instead, and the cuffs could be silver-embroidered to match, as opposed to leather lined. 

The chains twitched under his touch, and Chengqian leaned in. "You still won't look at me." 

He brushed a knuckle down a sharp cheekbone, earning himself a flinch. 

Chengqian resisted the urge to snag him by the chin. Over the years he'd learned _some_ restraint, as taught by his Aunt. 

And she knew the hearts of omegas very well. 

So he instead trailed a hand down over the length of the omega's body, and then pressed his palm down over his abdomen. 

"Firm isn't it?" he said, softly, and his Ze'er gasped, a wet, hurt sound at the reminder. 

The reminder of _his_ victory in the war in succession, and the reminder of where Ze'er was supposed to be. 

"It's only been two months," Chengqian said, curling his fingers just a little to exert the slightest pressure. Ze'er choked on the next sound - not a word. An attempt to keep himself quiet. 

Without a gag to help, though, he wasn't going to be entirely successful. 

"You must think," Chengqian said, still soft, not removing his hand from Ze'er's belly, "that you would be safe from my attentions for several more months then." 

Ze'er didn't answer; kept his face turned away. Chengqian leaned in, over; in the soft light of the eternal twilight he kept the room in, he could still see the dried tracks down those cheekbones, trailing from pretty eyes down the curve of delicate jaw to be hidden in shadow. 

"Do you think so, _Ze'er_?" Chengqian said, and it was with something cruel, sharp, when Ze'er's eyes jerked to him at that sweet little nickname. 

"Don't you call me that," Ze'er spat, the roughness of his voice belying his otherwise delicate appearance. 

Well. Couldn't blame him for that. Not half a day ago, Ze'er had been sobbing himself hoarse in the throes of heat. 

As much as Chengqian would have preferred Ze'er to scream _for_ him, it was enough that Ze'er had learned to scream no name at all. 

For now. 

He rubbed his thumb over his Ze'er's silk-clothed belly, savouring the warmth of the omega's skin he could feel through the thin material. 

The room was a little cool, having no direct sun exposure on any of its walls, purposefully chosen for the ability to control its ventilation. The side-effect of its lower temperature - he'd hoped that Ze'er would be more inclined to seek body heat, but Ze'er apparently had stubbornness etched into his bones. The only time he'd been utterly pliant besides the drugs had been two months ago, when he had finally caught. 

"I can call you what I like," Chengqian said. "And I like Ze'er." 

He had, before this, before he'd gotten Ze'er in this bed, in his arms, thought of many, many cruel and terrible names to call him. When Ze'er had been his father's Lao Er, when he had been prancing around the Capital City under the title of _Second Prince_. 

But that was cruel -- and Chengqian had under his Aunt's tutelage, learned to, if not think uncruel thoughts, then at least sheathe his tongue behind second, or third thoughts. 

Besides, he thought as Ze'er blinked rapidly, gaze furious and eyes dark but finally focused on him, a precise and light application of _sweet_ and _soft_ hurt worse than the cruelest barbs. 

"You have no right to call me that," Ze'er said.

Chengqian leaned forward more, careful not to put more pressure on Ze'er's belly, and stroked his thumb under Ze'er's eye, the light touch encouraging the glimmer of wetness to overflow from the fine line of his lower eyelid, to collect on the tip of his thumb. 

Ze'er was glaring too angrily at him to want to close his eyes, and it meant Chengqian got what he wanted anyway - Ze'er wasn't looking away, or closing his eyes pretending to be dead. 

It might have taken him a while, but Chengqian _could_ learn. He just needed the right motivation and the right goals. 

Ze'er looking at him adoringly, or with any sort of softened emotion would have been not Ze'er after all, and with everything done so far, Ze'er was meant to be his reward. The ferocity in Ze'er's gaze was wholly him; Ze'er was just completely helpless to follow through, now that he'd lost _utterly_. 

Nothing would match that look on Ze'er's face, right at the end of Ze'er's reign as an actual contender, when Father'd died, and Ze'er had had no one but the mongrel Alpha, and he'd actually _pleaded_ for mercy, for Chengqian his emperor to stay his hand. 

_"I'm pregnant with my husband's child!"_

Chengqian would forever savour the growing horror in Ze'er's eyes when he, always so clever, always so _quick_ , realised he had just doomed his alpha and unborn child by saying that, and then turning in a flutter of trailing silk to shove the alpha out the window, screaming for him to run.

Ze'er had never lifted a sword in his life; he'd never had to before he'd moved out, and once he had, he'd acquired the mongrel alpha who did everything physical for him. 

Ze'er couldn't even fight off Chengqian's arms on him; he couldn't even fight off his own body's reactions as he crumbled, wailing brokenly as blood soaked the silver and white silks of his trailing robes. 

Even his body had known when he had lost and surrendered entirely, eliminating the need for Chengqian to use the abortifacients he had brought.

"I have," Chengqian said, sliding his thumb across the sweep of Ze'er's eyelid, smearing wetness to glimmer against the thin delicate skin, feeling the tremble of it under his thumb, "every right." 

Ze'er jerked his head, trying to bite, but Chengqian just tightened his hand into a claw, digging his fingers into Ze'er's face until he stopped with the sad attempt at a growl. Even a beta child was better at that then Ze'er ever could be. 

"This," Chengqian said, petting Ze'er's belly, his smile going gentler as Ze'er's furious breaths grew harsher with anger and fear coloured his gaze, "won't deter my attentions." 

"I would lose it," Ze'er said, as if both of them didn't know that just yesterday the drugged tea still worked, that Ze'er had still ended up screaming for a knot, and that here he was in the afternoon after, belly firm as ever. 

"I," Chengqian said, leaning in closer, feeling Ze'er's quick, rapid breaths over his lips, "don't care if you do." 

Ze'er bit when Chengqian kissed him, but it didn't matter. The blood always tasted sweeter on Ze'er's tongue, just like his sobs always sounded better half broken.

* * *

In a different time, where things fell out differently, when Li Chengze was still the Second Prince of Qing, he once wrote a letter.

> I am the lazy sort. I don't really like responsibilities and the pressures of power. 
> 
> By now, you should know that all that has happened in the Capital was under my direction. 
> 
> But how should I put it?
> 
> To be a child of the Imperial family is the most difficult thing in the world. Children always fight. In other families, to lose is to lose a future, an inheritance, a reputation. With an imperial son, you lose your life. If _I_ lose, I lose my body, my autonomy, and my right to not live drugged out of my mind. You might not believe me, but I know best how the Crown Prince, my dear brother, looks at me. How his nostrils flare whenever he catches my scent.
> 
> Even if I might wish otherwise, this is a game I cannot afford not to play, and this is a fight I cannot afford to lose.

**Author's Note:**

> As far as everyone knows, the Second Prince "retired" out of the city when his gambit for the throne lost, and his younger brother the Crown Prince took the throne. He was fortunate he was not executed and instead given functional exile. 
> 
> No one would think to search for the second prince in the heart of the Imperial Palace in the Capital City.


End file.
